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Staff

Andrew Hunter is a senior fellow in the International Security Program and director of the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group at CSIS. From 2011 to 2014, he served as a senior executive in the Department of Defense, serving first as chief of staff to undersecretaries of defense (AT&L) Ashton B. Carter and Frank Kendall, before directing the Joint Rapid Acquisition Cell. From 2005 to 2011, Mr. Hunter served as a professional staff member of the House Armed Services Committee. Mr. Hunter holds an M.A. degree in applied economics from the Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. in social studies from Harvard University.

Gregory Sanders is a deputy director and fellow with the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group (DIIG) at CSIS, where he manages a research team that analyzes data on U.S. government contract spending and other budget and acquisition issues. He employs data visualization and other ways to use complex data collections to create succinct and innovative tables, charts, and maps. His recent research focuses on contract spending by major government departments, contingency contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and European and Asian defense budgets. This work requires management of data from a variety of databases, most notably the Federal Procurement Database System, and extensive cross-referencing of multiple budget data sources. In support of these goals, he employs SQL Server, as well as the statistical programming language R. Sanders holds an M.A. in international studies from the University of Denver and a B.A. in government and politics, as well as a B.S. in computer science, from the University of Maryland.

Gabriel Coll is the program coordinator for the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group (DIIG) at CSIS. Prior to joining DIIG, he worked for the CSIS International Security Program, where he supported the development of the Federated Defense Project and provided research on Asia and the Middle East. In 2013, he graduated from Boston University, where he majored in international relations, business administration, and history and holds a B.S.B.A. and B.A. (with honors). During 2010, he studied at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Jesse Ellman is an associate fellow with the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group (DIIG) at CSIS. He specializes in U.S. defense acquisition policy, with a particular focus on DoD, DHS, and government-wide services and R&D contracting trends, U.S. defense industrial base policy, and recent U.S. Army modernization efforts. Mr. Ellman holds a B.A. in political science from Stony Brook University and an M.A. with honors in security studies, with a concentration in military operations, from Georgetown University.

Rhys McCormick is a research assistant with the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group (DIIG) at CSIS. His work focuses on unmanned systems, global defense industrial base issues, and U.S. federal and defense contracting trends. Prior to working at DIIG, he interned at the Abshire-Inamori Leadership Academy at CSIS and the Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute at the U.S. Army War College. He holds a B.S. in security and risk analysis from the Pennsylvania State University and is currently pursuing an M.A. in security studies at Georgetown University.

Samantha Cohen is a research assistant with the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group (DIIG) at CSIS. Her work focuses on managing and analyzing data to identify relationships among policies, defense spending, and outcomes. Her recent research focuses on public opinion and defense spending in European countries. Prior to her current position, she interned with DIIG and supported the development of data analysis for a project on effective competition for defense contracts. In 2015, she graduated from American University with a B.S. (honors) in economics. Additionally, she successfully completed the intensive French Language School program at Middlebury College ending as a B2 in 2013 and studied the economic and defense policies of the European Union at the Université catholique de Louvain in Brussels, Belgium, in 2014.